Tadej Pogacar has secured a second victory at this year’s Paris-Nice, winning stage seven atop the Col de la Couillole, the highest summit of the race, and extending his overall lead.

Despite strong competition from David Gaudu and Jonas Vingegaard, who finished second and third respectively, the UAE Team Emirates rider launched into a powerful sprint over the last 200m to cross the line first, strengthening his hold on the leader’s jersey in the process.

The Slovenian now has a 12-second advantage on top of the general classification, taking two more seconds off Gaudu, competing for Groupama-FDJ, and six more off Vingegaard, riding for Jumbo-Visma. That leaves Vingegaard, last year’s Tour de France winner, 58 seconds adrift in third.

Pogacar is in a strong position to take overall victory, though his lead is far from unassailable. Stage eight, which takes place on Sunday, will pit Pogacar, Gaudu and Vingegaard against each other on a testing and hilly 118.4km route around Nice.

Speaking after the stage, Pogacar said: “We were racing full gas from start, Ineos [Grenadiers] did a big effort in the middle of the stage and coming to final climb everyone was already a bit dead. For sure today was one of the toughest battles for the finish.

“[My attack] was a bit early, but I didn’t want too many riders in the front, so it would be less stop-start. In the end it went perfectly how I imagined it. Tomorrow is another really hard day, I think the hardest of the whole Paris-Nice, but the climbs are better for me tomorrow. We try to defend as hard as possible.”

Simon Yates, the British rider who competes for Jayco–AlUla, finished fourth, with Neilson Powless of EF Education-EasyPost in fifth.